WHYISLAM.IN I E-source to know, understand and follow the true faith, to achieve peace in this life and hereafter. The life style, accepted in the sight of Almighty, the knowledge of true faith based on facts, logic and literature revealed by the Creat

Description: Modern science has discovered facts about the atmosphere mentioned
in the Quran over 1400 years ago.

“By the sky
which returns.” (Quran 86:11)

“[He] who made
for you the earth a bed [spread out] and the sky a ceiling…” (Quran
2:22)

In the first
verse God swears by the sky[1]and its function of ‘returning’ without
specifying what it ‘returns.’ In Islamic doctrine, a divine oath
signifies the magnitude of importance of a special relation to the Creator, and
manifests His majesty and the supreme Truth in a special way.

The second verse
describes the Divine Act that made the sky a ‘ceiling’ for the dwellers of
earth.

Let us see what
modern atmospheric science has to say about the role and function of the sky.

The atmosphere is
a word which denotes all the air surrounding the earth, from the ground all the
way up to the edge from which space starts. The atmosphere is composed of
several layers, each defined because of the various phenomena which occur
within the layer.

Rain, for one,
is ‘returned’ to Earth by the clouds in the atmosphere. Explaining the
hydrologic cycle, Encyclopedia Britannica writes:

“Water
evaporates from both the aquatic and terrestrial environments as it is heated
by the Sun’s energy. The rates of evaporation and precipitation depend on
solar energy, as do the patterns of circulation of moisture in the air and
currents in the ocean. Evaporation exceeds precipitation over the oceans,
and this water vapor is transported by the wind over land, where it returns to
the land through precipitation.”[2]

Not only does
the atmosphere return what was on the surface back to the surface, but it
reflects back into space that which might damage the flora and fauna the earth
sustains, such as excessive radiant heat. In the 1990’s, collaborations
between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Institute of Space and
Astronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan resulted in the International
Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Science Initiative. Polar, Wind and
Geotail are a part of this initiative, combining resources and scientific
communities to obtain coordinated, simultaneous investigations of the Sun-Earth
space environment over an extended period of time. They have an excellent
explanation of how the atmosphere returns solar heat to space.[3]

Besides
‘returning’ rain, heat and radio waves, the atmosphere protects us like a
ceiling above our heads by filtering out deadly cosmic rays, powerful
ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun, and even meteorites on collision
course with Earth.[4]

Pennsylvania
State Public Broadcasting tells us:

“The sunlight
that we can see represents one group of wavelengths, visible light. Other
wavelengths emitted by the sun include x-rays and ultraviolet radiation.
X-rays and some ultraviolet light waves are absorbed high in Earth’s
atmosphere. They heat the thin layer of gas there to very high
temperatures. Ultraviolet light waves are the rays that can cause
sunburn. Most ultraviolet light waves are absorbed by a thicker layer of
gas closer to Earth called the ozone layer. By soaking up the deadly
ultraviolet and x-rays, the atmosphere acts as a protective shield around the
planet. Like a giant thermal blanket, the atmosphere also keeps
temperatures from getting too hot or too cold. In addition, the
atmosphere also protects us from constant bombardment by meteoroids, bits of
rock and dust that travel at high speeds throughout the solar system. The
falling stars we see at night are not stars at all; they are actually
meteoroids burning up in our atmosphere due to the extreme heating they
undergo.”[5]

Encyclopedia
Britannica, describing the role of Stratosphere, tells us about its protective
role in absorbing dangerous ultraviolet radiation:

“In the upper
stratospheric regions, absorption of ultraviolet light from the Sun breaks down
oxygen molecules; recombination of oxygen atoms with O2 molecules into ozone
(O3) creates the ozone layer, which shields the lower ecosphere from harmful
short-wavelength radiation…More disturbing, however, is the discovery of a
growing depletion of ozone over temperate latitudes, where a large percentage
of the world’s population resides, since the ozone layer serves as a shield
against ultraviolet radiation, which has been found to cause skin cancer.” [6]

The mesosphere
is the layer in which many meteors burn up while entering the Earth’s
atmosphere. Imagine a baseball zipping along at 30,000 miles per
hour. That’s how big and fast many meteors are. When they plow through
the atmosphere, meteors are heated to more than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, and
they glow. A meteor compresses air in front of it. The air heats
up, in turn heating the meteor. [7]

This is an image
which shows the Earth and its atmosphere. The mesosphere would be the
dark blue edge located on the far top of the image underneath the back. (Image courtesy of NASA)

Earth is
surrounded by a magnetic force field - a bubble in space called “the
magnetosphere” tens of thousands of miles wide. The magnetosphere acts as
a shield that protects us from solar storms. However, according to new
observations from NASA’s IMAGE spacecraft and the joint NASA/European Space
Agency Cluster satellites, immense cracks sometimes develop in Earth’s
magnetosphere and remain open for hours. This allows the solar wind to
gush through and power stormy space weather. Fortunately, these cracks do
not expose Earth’s surface to the solar wind. Our atmosphere protects us,
even when our magnetic field does not. [8]

An artist’s
rendition of NASA’s IMAGE satellite flying through a ‘crack’ in Earth’s
magnetic field.

How would it be
possible for a fourteenth century desert dweller to describe the sky in a
manner so precise that only recent scientific discoveries have confirmed it?
The only way is if he received revelation from the Creator of the sky.

Footnotes:

[1] Al-Samaa’, the Arabic word
translated here as ‘sky’ includes earth’s atmosphere as indicated by the verse
2:164.